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Tag Archives: Nottingham Tennis Centre

The Sherfield School Boys team, which consists of four Totally Tennis performance players, completed in the Team Tennis Schools National Championships Finals 2016-2017 (formerly known as the Glanville Cup) at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.

The Boys Team (L to R) Alex Dawson, Liam Hignett, former Sherfield School Head of PE Adam Gibson, Miles Bromilow and Dean Cooper Kirby

The team of Liam Hignett, Miles Bromilow, Alex Dawson and Dean Cooper Kirby were playing in a tough field of the top sixteen teams in the country at the weekend long event. Unfortunately the boys were knocked out in the first round of the main draw by Cheam High School 8-4. Bromilow and Cooper Kirby both won their singles matches 4-1, 3-5, 1-0(6) and 4-2, 4-2 respectively but Hignett and Dawson lost, both pairings were beaten in the doubles.

The boys then competed in the consolation draw beating Queen Elizabeth School, Cumbria 10-0 followed by St.Peter’s RC High School 8-4 in the semis but then lost in the final against St Bede’s 8-2 with Bromilow the only player to win a match.

Top seeds Culford School A were the overall winners beating third seeds Reed’s School in the final 8-2. In the Girl’s event (formerly known as the Aberdare Cup) second seeds Talbot Heath School A beat top seeds Queenswood School in the final 8-4.

The Sherfield School sixth form team of Liam Hignett, Miles Bromilow, Alex Dawson and Dean Cooper Kirby (from Year 8) won the Hampshire/Dorset/Wiltshire knockout stage of the Glanville Cup. The team beat Bournemouth Colleigate 8 – 4 in their final match played last Friday at the West Hants club in Bournemouth.

In the earlier matches the boys beat Alton College 12 – 0 and Cranleigh Senior Boys 10 – 2. The team made up of Totally Tennis performance players, who are all also tennis scholars at the school, have now qualified for the National Finals that will be played at Nottingham Tennis Centre from 11th – 14th July.

Queen Mary’s College (QMC) PE teacher Sarah Goldson run the annual Association of Colleges (AoC) Tennis – South East Regional Singles Competition earlier this week at Totally Tennis’ indoor centre in the War Memorial Park, Basingstoke.

This event has been hosted at Totally Tennis for the last ten years and QMC have always been well represented and this year was no exception. Alex Wood and Andrew Dingwall played in the boys event and the girls event was contested by QMC’s top female player Kelsey Mosquera. Each college is permitted two singles entries in each gender category and this year a total of fifteen boys and thirteen girls signed up to play. The tournament was played in the FAST4 format as requested after it was introduced at National Level in 2015, this year the National finals will be held at the Nottingham Tennis Centre for the first time.

(L to R) QMC’s Andrew Dingwall and Alex Wood

Top seeds in both competitions were Freya Davies and Austin Gwilliam who were both representing Peter Symonds College from nearby Winchester. The boys event was played in four groups with the calibre of play was extremely high. QMC’s Wood played really well beating Matthew Robinson (Reigate) 4-0, 4-0 and Ryan O’Leary (Havant) 4-3(0), 4-0 but lost against Tom Woodcock (Barton Peveril) 4-2, 4-1 to finish second in his group but unfortunately due to time restrictions only the group winners progressed to the semi-final stage. Dingwall had a hard task with top seed Gwilliam playing in his group, he beat Serhan Dogan (Worthing) 4-0, 4-1 but lost to Gwilliam 4-1, 4-0 and then also lost against Harry Orrin (Farnborough) in a close encounter 4-2, 2-4, 9-10 (sudden death nine points all as per the FAST4 format) so missed out on the runner-up spot. In the final Gwilliam beat Ryan Young (Worthing) 4-0, 4-1 to be crowned the overall winner.

Overall Boys winner Austin Gwilliam from Peter Symonds College

Mosquera defeated Lauren Suter (Farnborough) 4-0, 4-0 and Abigail Downham (Worthing) 4-2, 4-1 to win her group. In the semi-final, she came up against eventual winner Davis whose greater weight of shots and increased consistency was better than any of the opponents she had faced in group stages. Unable to sustain her own game at a high enough level to win the match Mosquera lost to Davis 4-0, 4-0 and she went on to win the final against Helen Skingley (Worthing) 4-0, 4-0 and give Peter Symonds College both victories and two National finalists.

Goldson said “I had high hopes for Mosquera who as expected went for all her shots from the outset, dictating the majority of the points in her group matches from the back of the court.”

AoC Sport is the lead organisation for college sport and physical activity in this country funded by Sport England, the vision is that every college student has the opportunity to participate regularly in sport or physical activity. Regional tournaments in thirteen different sports are open to students in AoC Sport member colleges and are held in the autumn term. The best teams and individuals qualify for the National Championships where they compete individually both for their college and their region.

About Us

Totally Tennis is a thriving and buzzing tennis organisation that for the last two decades has been the driving force of tennis development in Hampshire. A fantastic facility with four indoor and four outdoor courts at the main site located in Basingstoke's War Memorial Park. The club also runs a programme at Stratton Park on six outdoor hard courts, and the tennis programmes at Hampshire Court and Sherfield School.